No 6: Summer Solstice

External Tools For Listening to Your Inner Guide by Sig Lonegren

Why is there so much interest in labyrinths among the dowsing community? In the last five years, this interest in labyrinths has exploded among dowsers on both sides of the Big Pond. In Britain, Feather Anderson's talk to the British Society of Dowsers annual gathering several years ago has ignited an intense interest in these magical single-path mazes in the BSD. I don't think it would be possible to go to any gathering of the American Society of Dowsers without encountering at lEast one, if not two or three, labyrinths. I'm sure that there must be a similar interest in the Canadian Society of Dowsers. In recent years, the consciousness of labyrinths has moved from traditional interests like where are they, what is the math behind their construction, and who might have built them, to much more personal practical implications. As we (re)discovered with the pendulum and other dowsing tools several decades ago, we have now (re)learned practical ways of using labyrinths as problem solving devices for real questions in our own lives. Dowsing and Labyrinths are both tools of divination. There are other connections as well.

The Meander and the Labyrinth

There are several links between labyrinths and water. The word labyrinth comes to us from Caunia in South-Western Turkey. It was a Greek colony, but the words "labyrinth," and "labrys," the double-headed axe much admired by feminists today, both come from a culture that was there before the Greeks arrived. And this was a matrifocal culture. A time, as Merlin Stone put it in the title of her seminal book, "When God was a Woman." It is in Caunia that we also find the Meander River. There is a form of art from the Eastern Mediterranean called the meander. It is also known as the Greek Key:

Meander or Greek Key

As I have shown in my book,

"Labyrinths: Ancient Myths & Modern Uses,"

if you imagine a hinge on one end

of the meander, it fans out into a labyrinth.

The Classical Seven Circuit (left-handed) Labyrinth

Anthropologist, Archaeologist and wise Crone Marija Gimbutas found that this meander pattern goes back to the Bird Goddess of Old Europe, an area that she defined as covering the Balkans down through Albania and Southern Italy and Sicily. Dr Gimbutas traced the Bird Goddess and this meander pattern through the stratigraphy of Old Europe back to at lEast 15,000 BCE! Would it be an understatement to say that that's a long long time ago? That's back when Cro Magnon was painting pictures on cave walls! When God was a woman.

Fourteen-thousand years later, the Greeks colonized the Meander River shortly before the time of Christ. They gave us the meander pattern, which they renamed the Greek Key. They also told us that "to meander" meant "to wander aimlessly." That is not what's going on in a labyrinth. To the left brain, it may look like that, but in addition to being beautiful to the eye, like her sister-in- divination, dowsing, these single-path magical mazes are also excellent tools of divination.

It looks like the Greeks didn't have the key after all. They didn't have a clue. Ariadne convinced Daedalus, designer of the Cretan maze to give her the clew - the ball of yarn. She did have the key. The Meander River

The Meander River is special. All other meandering rivers are named after this one. In the geological cycle of a river, meandering happens at the end. It is something a river does after it has ground out the mountain into a valley, and then carved the valley wide enough so that it can finally snake back and forth on its way to the sea. Meanderings are done by the old ones in Water's cycle. The Element Water is feminine. Perhaps labyrinths are a tool of the Crone, or wise old woman?

Meanders and Water Meandering is actually a very efficient way of traveling when there is not much drop in elevation. Moving from side to side. Theodore Schwenk writes in "Sensitive Chaos" about the work of hydrological genius Victor Schauberger. Schauberger studied flowing water in all of its forms including the meander. Schwenk writes, "A meandering motion lengthens the course of a river and thus slows down the speed at which it flows. In this way the river bed is not hollowed out, the ground water reserves are left intact." (Schwenk. p 18.)

Used as a metaphor for walking a labyrinth, the path slows down the speed at which you walk or flow over a longer distance In this way, your passing is not so abrasive to the path, and you do not draw from the reserves outside yourself. They come from within.

Water and humans meet in sacred space. She is always underneath. Below. Her juvenile waters surface as Holy Wells. Water is our Mother's blessing. (I just can't live without it!) Old, wandering, flowing water carries labyrinth energy. What Wisdom can She bring us?

The Water-Drawing Power of Labyrinths

Recently various dowser/labyrinth builders have been reporting the primary water drawing-power of labyrinths. Marty Cain, John Wayne Blassingame and I have all noticed this. Others are telling me of this as well: After their construction, primary water appears to be drawn to new labyrinths that are being used in a conscious manner. (That last bit is very important - the conscious human interaction is critical.)

I found this primary water connection at a wonderful stone Chartres-type labyrinth at a Norman Castle in South Western Wales. I have written about my work there in previous articles in MAG E-zine To recapitualte, it's builder, Elizabeth Sulivan, is a good dowser, and her work there has been checked by Major General Bill Cooper, President of the British Society of Dowsers. She had found several wells for her farm. When she began her project, Mrs. Sulivan had found no significant veins of underground water at the point where she dowsed that the labyrinth should be located. It took two men two years to build. Mrs. Sullivan dowsed the location of every single stone in the wall. Towards the end of its construction, Bill Cooper found that there was a dome moving under the castle towards the labyrinth. (As far as I understand, this is supposedly a geological impossibility. Yet, "it seemed to be happening.") Several weeks later, when I arrived at Mrs. Sulivan's castle, I dowsed a dome of water under the goal of the labyrinth, and five veins, one of which exited out the mouth of the labyrinth! (See "Endnotes"for more information.) This is the pattern that I have found at older classical-type labyrinths like the ones in Sweden. The important thing here is that it seems that there might be a special attraction between labyrinths that are being consciously used, and primary water.

Dowsing, Labyrinths and Water

Dowsers spend much of their time checking for water anyway. Of course water well dowsers look for it. When most people think of dowsing , that's what they think of - its connection with finding good drinking water. But there are other dowsers who are also interested in primary/juvenile water. Dowsers who are in to healing seek underground veins of water that course under homes and offices. Students of the Earth Mysteries also find this water in certain repeating patterns under sacred sites all over the world. So it should come as no surprise that so many dowsers would also be interested in labyrinths - which also have such strong connections with this very necessary Element.

When we begin our journey on that spiritual path that becomes our pilgrimage, as we seek to know the spiritual realms, certain external tools can provide instructive and safe ways for the spiritual pilgrim to move safely between the realms. Both labyrinths and dowsing tools can provide this protection and support. Ultimately, of course, it becomes necessary to give up the tools entirely; however, I've been dowsing for thirty-five years, and there still are many times when I prefer using my brass pendulum rather than my "inner" pendulum.

As with dowsing, it is possible to walk the labyrinth without actually being in one - to do it in your head. It might be called using your "internal labyrinth." But the power and focus gained from actually walking the path of a real labyrinth are not to be easily dismissed.

Both dowsing and labyrinths are tools that can enhance our intuition when making important decisions. They are tools that we can use today. They are external tools that can help us to begin to hear our Inner Guides on the path.

ENDNOTES

Labyrinths Drawing Water: I have written my findings in "MAG E-zine," the electronic magazine of Mid-Atlantic Geomancy.

A Journey Through the Four Directions by Diana Griffiths

"Love is its gift, endless is its life, perfection is its character, truth is its lesson, harmony its purpose. The circle is the Spirit of Earth Harmony. It is the symbol in which we can understand ourselves in relation to the universe." Twylah Nitsch - Seneca Grandmother.

A while back Sig asked me if I would write a piece on "Working with Circles," we were at an Oak Dragon camp in the beautiful countryside of Dorset, England, running a 10 day camp which we'd spent the best part of a year planning. The Camp was entitled "Awakening to the Circle - a Journey through the Four Directions." The idea for this camp had been formulating in my being for several years through the work I was doing and my own personal journey around the circle.

"Long ago at the beginning of time the shape of Harmony created the circle. Its shape radiated gentle peace and possessed such soothing qualities. Earth manifestations embrace and praise its existence." Twylah Nitsch - Seneca Grandmother.

The circle is a symbol used by many traditions the world over from time immemorial and referred to by such names as the Medicine Wheel, Sacred Hoop, and the Wheel of Life. Ceremony and religious rites were practised in circles, life was lived in circles and moved with the changing seasons.

Today's lifestyle has removed us from this natural experience, cushioning our senses with central heating, piped water, flush toilets and supermarkets. The seasons pass us by year after year and we become more anaesthetized. To step into the circle is to say yes to becoming - becoming more aware of who we are as individuals and more aware of our interactions with others and the environment we find ourselves in. It brings a fuller sense of being and knowing, that the journey we walk in this life has a rhythm, and that rhythm can become revealed to us.

Quabalic Circles in Australia, Medicine Wheels in America and Stone Circles in England

Some twenty-five years ago I found myself way out in the Australian Bush with 35 to 40 other people. It was Spring Equinox and we were to celebrate this balance point in the year as part of our Quabala studies. A circle was drawn into the ground and the Four Cardinal Directions aligned to the compass points. The circle was cleared using frankincense and myrrh and the Guardian Angels. Spirit keepers of the four directions were called in bringing with them the qualities of the four elements, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. We then entered the circle in silence and the ceremony began....... I had entered a sacred space with an intent shared by every participant - we became the circle. It was an experience that shifted my consciousness forever.. as one being our energy took us beyond the realms of the known world.

Ten years later I stepped onto the Medicine Wheel of the Native American people and soon began to see the same Circle emerging but from the eyes of a different spoke on the wheel… Again the four directions held the key and were brought from the etheric realms of angels into sacred animals and sacred plants.

Duloe Stone Circle, Cornwall

Silbury Hill, Wiltshire

My journey has taken me into many circles, experiencing different traditions with the same base map. England is covered with stone circles each with their own Sunrise or Moonrise alignment to major turning points of the year indicating importance of that energy in that place at that time. At the Avebury megalithic complex in Southern England is a monumental map of a journey around the wheel where a site for each quarter and Cross quarter day of the annual cycle is represented. Ripeness and harvest yields the Lammas celebrations of the start of August at Silbury Hill, a mound the shape of the pregnant woman's belly ready to birth rising out of a gentle rolling landscape. When nature returns to the earth West Kennet Long Barrow with its five inner chambers offers the complete darkness and density of the mid-Winter point.

Stepping into the Circle, Stepping onto the Wheel

Stepping into the circle is about aligning ourselves to a rhythm. Nature offers a constant reminder of movement through the changing of season, from the Sunrise and Sunset points to the Moon's ebb and flow.

To bring ourselves into alignment with these changing seasons brings us onto the wheel of life and our own energies into alignment. How often have we felt frustrated in the middle of Winter wondering what to do with ourselves instead of taking the time to be still and allow ourselves to rest? In becoming aware of what our changing energies do at these seasonal times gives us a picture of who we are, how effective we are in our actions, how our energy comes and goes....

Stepping onto the wheel means becoming conscious of where we stand at any one moment on the cycle or rhythm of life. In the Seneca teachings (Iroquois, Native American) we sit in the South of our own wheel. In the South we become the qualities of trust and innocence and open again as small children to the wonders of experience without judgments. When sitting in different circles we may find ourselves sitting in any of the directions, but if we place our circle into the greater circle we still remain in our South wheel, though we may be in the West of that circle. In other words we are experiencing the West from the point of view of trust and innocence and allowing the circle to come to life.

Native American Medicine Wheel

All my work is in circles. When working with a group, we sit in circle. Everyone is able to look at everyone else, no one is hidden behind anyone, we are all equal. Some years ago we were given the Talking Stick Teachings by a Native American teacher when he visited a camp we were having near Glastonbury in the UK. We have used it with some startling results. It is more of a listening stick than a talking stick. The stick is passed around the circle clockwise and everyone is given the space to talk, or not. The idea is to talk from the heart and not the head and allow whatever needs to be spoken to be spoken. With a greater understanding of the qualities of each direction one is able to see these qualities speaking through those sitting in the different quadrants of the wheel, and the circle begins to reflect the sum total of its whole. It becomes a living entity created by its individuals. It is interesting to look across the circle and see who may be there and what they are saying - more often than not it is the mirror reflection of where you are - another point of view to look at! A question posed to a circle will be passed around and by the time it gets back to the beginning again every aspect of it will have been put into the centre to give a greater understanding of the answer needed.

To become aware of our own personal circle of energy also brings us in touch with a greater sense of awareness around other peoples' energy fields - knowing when to offer healing and when to stand back; knowing that perhaps what is being said is not quite what the person is feeling.

It is important whether working within your own circle, or when working with others, to keep the circle clean. That the edge of the circle defines a boundary that requires permission to be granted before being allowed entry. On a personal level that means being aware of the food we eat, how we take care of our health and well-being.

On an outer level it's how clear we keep the spaces we create. On a conscious level we can create our circle around us by envisioning a circle around our house; the top above the ground, the bottom in the ground, linking us to heaven and to earth. Feel where the centre is and then find the four compass points and mark each place with an altar that reflects the energy of that element for you. It could be a feather, a candle, a chalice of water and a stone, or simply four stones, one white, one red, one green and one black. Spend time with each of the altars, feel the different qualities of their energies and become familiar with them in a way that when you stand in the centre of your own circle at any time you can feel them around you. Invite in the Spirit Keepers of each of the directions and become familiar with them. You may have a particular animal that represents a place on the wheel, invite them in too..

by Palden Jenkins

I'm not a geomancer - I'm involved in other planetary healing activities; however the issues involved in both fields give rise to similar questions. These questions need continual review, since things are nowadays very much in the balance and small actions can have big effects. It's reasonably safe to assume that none of us intentionally seeks to harm nature, the cosmos or humanity, yet what about unintentions?

It's all very well to assume we're doing good for the world, but in what way does the world feed back its responses - and do we pick them up clearly? Or do we rest on our fantasies and preferences for truth? There is no clear and immediate answer to this - would that there were - however, in responsibly continuing in our work, we must nevertheless answer it, somehow!

We assume that it is good to contribute to stopping wars, alleviating pollution or geopathic stress. In principle this is true. However, consider this. If a war were to be the last war of its kind in human history, by dint of fundamental mass lessons learned from it, is there a risk that by working (and succeeding) to bring peace (no more shooting) we might thereby deprive humanity of a profound learning experience? The 'war to end all wars' of our own century didn't pan out that way: Humanity didn't learn. But what happens if the next war has a dramatically wholesome catalytic effect, through its perversity, on the psyche of humanity? Do we allow it to proceed or attempt to stop it? Answers on a postcard to President Clinton please!

If we look on war as a psychic virus (the aim of a virus being to preserve its life at all costs, no matter who the host is or what damage it wreaks), then stopping one war can precipitate the beginning of another. Bosnia started only months after Lebanon ended, and Ulster and Israel seem inextricably virally connected too.

So what do we do? Do we benignly work to stop a disgusting war, with the possible effect that the war-virus propagates elsewhere? There is an abstruse esoteric argument which says that (for example) Tibetans today suffer extreme oppression in order to stop others suffering, because Tibetans can handle it better. While this argument justifies nothing, it is a potent perspective which admonishes us not to take lightly the issues around 'freeing' Tibet. And would Holiday Inns, Coca-Cola and packaged meditation tours in Lhasa represent an improvement?

In the case of older people, it is sometimes said that healing therapies can unleash the surfacing of a plethora of buried ailments otherwise kept down by a dominant ailment. The same applies to earth-healing. Many are the times I've wondered whether ceremonial invocations atop a holy hill might unblock any containing fields around a nuclear power station, or shift a problem down the line to cause a city crime-wave 200 miles away. And, would a nuclear 'accident' or a spate of mugged grannies be a negative or in the end a positive thing? And what do 'negative' and 'positive' mean anyway?

Or, get this. A friend of mine was a dedicated Greenpeace campaigner in the 70s, specialising in nuclear issues. He realised that homeopathically-potentised plutonium is a remedy for spiritual blockage. Does this mean that releases of radiation into the atmosphere, subsequently diluted and succussed, *might* be a hidden redemptive factor which we nevertheless look on as 'a bad thing'? Where do our judgements lead us?

Or, how about sperm-counts? Declining male sperm counts could be a way by which humanity or the cosmos (or both) is unconsciously fixing the population problem. There's research which shows that men with healthy diet and lifestyle do not suffer declining sperm counts to the same degree as beer-and-burger types. Does this mean that future humanity is eliminating certain kinds of genes from its gene pool? Or are we heading for a boom industry in human studs, artificial insemination or women-led civil war? Choose your preferred nightmare!

Who knows? Whatever is the case, these two examples suggest that our basic ideological assumptions can be questionable, even though our motivations and love for life might be wholesome.

In August 1995, in the Hundredth Monkeying inner aid project, ninety of us spent a full day intensively working with Bosnia - the war was still on. While we were at work, two drunken Serbs bombed a Sarajevo marketplace, killing sixty. This led to NATO intervention within days, followed by Dayton. Were those sixty people, on a soul-level, intentionally sacrificing themselves? Were they hapless victims? Did they themselves benefit? Were they inwardly rescued as they suddenly 'passed over' - or was it all meaningless for them, a stray impact from the hand of fate? We might prefer to believe one thing or another - in honesty we do not know - yet our beliefs reflect our predispositions more than realities before us.

This means it is necessary to look at the specific ways we angle our approaches to healing work. For example, instead of seeking to stop a war or to heal or enhance a piece of damaged land it might be better to take another approach: to intentfully work on the basis of raising humanity's awareness and learning of the total implications of war or the wider effects of poisoned land.

It might be better to dedicate our work to catalysing human consciousness and lesson-learning than to operate directly on limited facets of our total planetary situation - since it is humanity which is the main source of the problem. However, the shorter-term outcomes of such an approach might seem questionable - especially if we're being paid for our services or if public expectations are involved.

This implies an incredibly equanimity-filled, foresightful attitude - and risk-taking and amplified responsibility. It involves trusting in the free-will of humanity and the guiding intelligence of nature to an enormous degree. We might even have to accept that, if necessary, it's okay if humanity and the world go down the tube. After all, partisanly taking sides, even in a 'light-bringing' sense, is perhaps more a part of the problem than the solution - Crusaders and evangelists, to themselves, were/are bringers of light. This means leaving the future very open: Im'sh'allah, que sera sera.

Tricky stuff, huh? What do we do? Such ideas can be confusing and discouraging to folks who prefer simple mapped-out answers to the big questions of our time. Yet the answer is neither to pack up and go home nor to ignore the question - nor to charge forward trying to outmanoeuvre the power of consequence. If anything, the answer implies redoubled effort in framing and understanding our healing work, whatever work we're moved to do.

But who is to say what's correct? Who sets the guidelines and what are they? In the end it's down to *conscience* - that penetratingly insightful part of ourselves which sees beyond judgement, without evaluation or editorial activity.

This is a challenge to continually review our concepts and practices. We can only go forward in faith. If there are unwittingly tarnished edges to our work, we need even then to examine whether and how these shadows might be valuable in the longterm or in indirect ways. We must bear in mind that we *can* innocently exacerbate situations we seek to heal or support. We're thus called upon repeatedly to recommit ourselves to relearning and unlearning notions we live and work by - whether it's comfortable or not.

After all, 'one person's medicine is another's poison' and, at times, the best remedy for a healing client can sometimes be death or drawn-out hardship, not necessarily improvement and alleviation in the commonly- sought way. It's not our prerogative to judge what's best, yet any practitioner *does judge anyway*, implicitly, by entering into a therapeutic agreement with a client - even if the 'client' is the Earth. In matters of death there are perspectives and reasons for death which lie far beyond our mortal ken - there are people who meet death whom we feel shouldn't or don't deserve it, while others live on despite all logic or expectation.

This is a challenge of consciousness. Part of our perceptual equipment deep down does know deeper, wider and future possibilities, even if we know not why or how and even if we not infrequently interpret its messages erroneously. We're challenged to use this equipment in conjunction with our more conscious thoughts, wishes and methods. Speaking for myself at lEast, having got thus far in the world-healing game, one thing has changed - I've become more aware of the bigger picture. And it's not as simple as I'd like it to be. The water is deeper and murkier than I once thought.

Yet that's a challenge to keep moving on - perhaps even to get deeper into the shit. Only time will tell. We can only put up the prayer that our well-meaning work genuinely does bring benefit - and if not, that it brings learning and eventual redemption. We must choose our reality with the wisdom that we have and get on with constructing it - and one day, perhaps even in another life - we'll find out what the true meaning of it all genuinely was!

Dispelling Myths and Understanding Nature Through Dowsing by Joseph Korn May 20, 1997

Through careful dowsing research, a friend and I feel we have made new discoveries about the unseen world we live in that should have important implications to dowsers. It seems that most dowsers consider auric fields to be concentric circular bands or spheres of energy around people, animals, trees, etc. Some dowsers consider these circular fields around people to be finite in number, usually seven, and ascribe names to them, such as the health aura, the astral aura, the mental aura, etc. This typically comes from matching our dowsing experience with metaphysical philosophy. Other dowsers consider these energy field bands to be infinite in number, extending into the universe. Until recently, I also thought them to be circular or possibly spherical. Our dowsing research has proved otherwise.

How Dowsers Typically Envision Human Auric Fields

Dowsing is important because it gives us tools to explore the unseen world we live in, otherwise visible only to those with psychic vision. It gives us opportunities to understand, through personal experience, concepts that we have always had to accept on faith or through intellectual understanding, such as the interconnectedness of everyone and everything on earth, to be discussed later in this article.

I have been particularly interested, through the years, in dowsing human energy fields and observing how they are affected by positive and negative thinking, by various foods, etc. Lately, Dr. Jim Wallace and I have been dowsing water domes, energy leys, and power spots, observing their effects on human auric fields. Let's cover a few basics before I explain our research.

Dowsers consider water domes to be sources of primary water that rise vertically from deep below the earth's surface. The rising water eventually hits an impenetrable layer of rock and spreads out into several streams, or water veins, along cracks or fissures in the earth, all extending out from the dome. These water veins are typically what we tap into when we drill water wells. Water domes can be located through dowsing and dowsers have observed that when human beings stand over a dome, their auric fields contract or weaken.

Energy leys are considered to be lines or beams of energy that enter the earth from the cosmos, turn at a right angles at a certain depth under the surface of the earth (some say 165 feet), course the earth for a certain distance in straight lines, then turn again at right angles to exit the earth and return to the cosmos. Many ancient sacred sites, such as pyramids and cathedrals, have been built in alignment with ley lines. Some dowsers maintain that energy leys carry yang, or positively charged, energy. I find that energy leys carry yin and yang (positive and negative) energy. In my experience, where there's a yin, there's a yang.

If a water dome is intersected by two or more energy leys, the combined energy creates what is considered to be a power spot. Here again, we have the presence of yin and yang, or positive andnegative, charges. When human beings stand over a power spot, their dowsable energy fields can be observed to expand or strengthen.

I have realized for years that when an experienced dowser approaches a human being from any direction, he or she will get several dowsing reactions, what I consider to be auric bands, or energy bands in the auric field. I have long wanted to answer the question, "Do these auric bands really create circles or, more accurately, spheres, as they seem to?" by following the auric bands around a person, marking and mapping their dowsed locations on the ground. But human energy fields are so volatile that this is difficult; the fields contract and expand simultaneously with varying thoughts of the person being dowsed.

In our dowsing explorations, Jim and I realized that water domes and power spots have energy fields surrounding them much like human auric fields. As we approached them with various dowsing tools, we got reactions like those we got when we approached people. Since the auric fields around domes and power spots are much more stable than human energy fields, they can be dowsed and marked more easily.

Jim and I decided to follow the energy bands around a dome with intersecting energy leys (a power spot) and mark their locations on the ground with chalk powder. We came to the surprising conclusion that the bands are not circular at all; they are part of a spiral, apparently expanding into infinity, which, of course, can only be theorized. No matter how far away we stood as we approached the power spot, we got dowsing reactions, just as when approaching people.

As we continued our research, we located a water dome without intersecting leys and once again marked the dowsed locations of the energy bands radiating from the center. When we completed this, we found that the spiral was clockwise in its spin orientation as it radiated out from the center. We went back to the power spot and noted that the spiral radiated out in a counter-clockwise spin. We thought this significant.

Water Dome Power Spot

Without Intersecting Leys

With Intersecting Leys

Before we mapped these energy bands, we had noted that the energy fields surrounding humans, domes, and power spots have alternating positive and negative charges, yin and yang. As we approached our target with L-rods, for instance, the rods would alternate between opening and Crossing. Jim's Y-rod would draw down and then rise up. We found we had to open ourselves to positive and negative, yin and yang, energy to experience this. Otherwise you will only pick up one or the other.

Because of this experience, we assumed that once we had marked the spirals on the ground, each band of the spiral would have alternating positive and negative charges. But when we dowsed the spiral marked on the ground, we got another surprise; every band had a positive, or yang, charge, demonstrated by the outward movements of our L-rods. (This may be inward for you, depending on how you have programmed your reactions.) The negative, or yin, charges, indicated for us by a Crossing of our L-rods, were in-between each band of the marked spiral.

After marking the negatively charged bands, we came to the conclusion that there are actually two spirals. The positive spiral seems to radiate outward from the center and the negatively charged spiral seems to draw inward, simultaneously, toward the center. We have since found that plants, trees, humans, and animals also have spiraling energy fields around them and we assume that everything does.

Two Interrelated Spirals with

One Extending Out and One

Simultaneously Drawing In

Our findings interested me for several reasons. Not only was it a new way of understanding the nature of auric fields for me, it also fit perfectly into the teachings of Walter Russell, a modern-day Leonardo, whom I have been studying for many years. Many dowsers study Russell's teachings about science and the nature of the universe. Russell said that all natural energy forms spirals, with one spiral radiating outward, centrifugally, and an interrelated spiral generating inward, centripedally, creating a vortex of energy that looks much like a tornado. I highly recommend the book, In the Wave Lies the Secret of Creation, which is a compilation of Russell's scientific paintings and charts, with commentaries and an outline of the Russell cosmogony, compiled by Tim Binder. If you are connected to the Internet, you can learn more about Walter Russell here, or you can contact me for more information.

Physicists now acknowledge that everything from DNA to plant and animal cells to hurricanes and tornadoes to galaxies form spirals or vortices. You may think, at this point, that Jim and I merely obtained our results through suggestion, but Jim had not studied Russell and we both fully expected to find circles when we completed our initial dowsing experiments. We were looking for circular auric bands.

To review our findings: Auric or energy fields around humans, animals, plants, trees, domes, power spots, and probably all of existence form interrelated spirals or vortices that radiate out and draw in simultaneously and infinitely. That is important: they radiate out and draw in simultaneously and infinitely. From our research so far, we find that human energy fields seem to radiate outward in a clockwise spiral, whether we are dowsing males or females. (We arbitrarily choose the outward radiating or positive spiral for spin orientation.) We also find that energy fields from trees and plants seem to radiate in a clockwise direction. As stated above, we find that water dome energy fields without intersecting leys spin in a clockwise direction while the energy fields of power spots spin in a counter-clockwise direction.

What does all this mean? What conclusions do we draw? Though our research is certainly not conclusive, we theorize that when a human being, with a clockwise spinning auric field, stands over a water dome, which also spins in a clockwise orientation, the spiraling energy field from the water dome causes our spiraling energy field to contract. When we stand on a dome with intersecting leys, the outward radiating energy from the power spot possibly feeds our inward drawing spiral (and/or vice-versa), thereby expanding and strengthening our auric fields. It may be that some people have auric fields that radiate out in a counter-clockwise spin. If this is the case, then possibly the balanced yin and yang energy, or positive and negative charges, carried in the energy field of a power spot feed both positive and negative charges in people. But the implications are much greater if we just think about it.

Haven't we always heard about the interconnectedness of all people and all things in the universe? If everything in the universe has these energy spirals simultaneously and infinitely radiating outward and drawing inward, doesn't that help explain this interconnectedness? Doesn't it explain how our thoughts and deeds can affect the energy of everyone else? Doesn't it help us to explain how what is happening to others in Bosnia, or Rwanda, or in any remote corner of the world affects the energy fields of each and every one of us in the world? Doesn't it give a possible explanation of how our prayers go out into the universe, how they affect others, and how they are answered (or how the answers are returned) by our Creator? Haven't we always heard that "thoughts are things" and "what we think and do will come back to us in kind," and that "what goes around comes around?" Our thoughts are carried into infinity by the outward spiraling energy band and the effect of those thoughts are simultaneously returned to us through the inward drawing spiral.

We have much more to learn in this area and welcome any interested dowsers to do their own research or join in research with us. We have many questions that we'd like to answer. Do all human energy fields spin in the same direction? Does the spin direction change in the Southern Hemisphere as water does when is spirals down a drain? The more questions we ask, the more questions we get.

I am not proposing that we are wrong when we think of humans as having seven auras. I am saying that what dowsers get reactions to are the bands in the auric field rather than the auras themselves. The various auras, visible to some clairvoyants, are possibly created or generated by these auric bands. The same thing can be observed surrounding plants, trees, or domes/power spots.

This can be demonstrated by dowsing one of the auras, or auric bands, and following it around the person (plant, tree, etc.) being dowsed. Choose a band that is fairly close to the body and think "I want to follow this particular band around this person (or plant, etc.)," and have someone mark where you get reactions. See if you find that they connect, indicating circles, or whether they go inside or outside of the original markings, indicating spirals. If you dowse a person, he or she should be standing or sitting in a quiet or resting state of mind and not watching what you are doing as his or her changing thoughts and perceptions will change the auric field.

Dowsing is a powerful tool to unlock the secrets of nature. The more we understand about the unseen world we live in, the more effective we will be in all aspects of dowsing and in all aspects of our lives. Just keep dowsing, questioning, and exploring.

You can learn more about Joey and his work with his father's story (not about dowsing) at remember.org/abe/ and you may also email Joey . His website is www.dowsers.com

Adapted from an article that appeared in the Winter '97 American Society of Dowsers newsletter, the Dowsers Network.